Here's what you need to know about Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka

Rakuten Eagles starter Masahiro Tanaka celebrates his complete game victory against the Yomiuri Giants during Game 2 of baseball's Japan Series at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi in Sendai, Oct. 27, 2013.

The same Posting System that brought Yu Darvish and Daisuke Matsuzaka to Major League Baseball expired in October. Until there’s a new agreement for allowing contracted players to jump from NPB, the top league in Japan, to MLB, prized right-handed pitcher Masahiro Tanaka will wait.

So will the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Giants, Rangers, Tigers, Mets, and any other team that has a passing interest in Tanaka, whom many evaluators believe is the best free-agent pitcher on the market — once he posts.

The Texas Rangers won a four-day silent auction with a record $51.7 million bid for the right to negotiate with Darvish in 2011. The four-day silent auction might be banished to the history books soon; Darvish’s record posting fee will for sure.

Here are 10 things to know about Tanaka:

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1. His wife, Mai Satoda, is a member of the Japanese Pop music group Country Musume.

2. On Sept. 13, Tanaka set a Nippon Professional Baseball record with his 21st consecutive win of the season, his 25th including the 2012 season. The major-league record for consecutive wins is 24, set by Carl Hubbell in 1937.

3. Tanaka’s first position was catcher. He didn’t exclusively pitch until high school, which begins with 10th grade in Japan.

4. As a high school senior, Tanaka threw 742 pitches over six appearances, breaking the national record of 643 pitches thrown by Daisuke Matsuzaka eight years earlier.